But there are no gigantic, falling rocks that chase our villain to rapid closing doors. As he leaves the building, nothing stirs. Mortimer expects to hear a distant groan of a bleeding guard, but they have all passed to the beyond. By morning, the place will stink of rotting corpses.

Outside the bank, there is no smug, British man in a suit to take the golden potato from him, just a barricade of police cars and men and women telling him to hold still and disarm. This evening does not turn out to be a complete disappointment, however, because behind the police and their cars are an equally large force of reporters and their vans.

The only jungle Mortimer can flee through is the jungle of Last Kale’s financial district at 11:00pm. But the circumstances don’t call for running away. He takes out his cell phone and hits a few button, and before long, ZERO’s helicopter arrive and peppers the ground with bullets. The police scatter and take cover as the helicopter lands and Mortimer steps into it. “Give them a few missiles, ZERO.”

“In a bad mood, Dr. Hex?”

Mortimer shrugs. “I guess.”

As our villain makes his escape, ZERO blows the police barricade to pieces with a fusillade. Biplanes are for suckers.

This is part 32 of Vile, a novel in progress. Would you like to read from the beginning?